wrote in news:15999-42295EC9-646@storefull-
3253.bay.webtv.net:

I read an article the other day of a couple (man/woman thing, you know, a
couple), that had been fined and threatened with equipment confiscation
since they weren't complying with FCC regulations. The couple's equipment
consisted of a battery charger or two for the charging of the couple's
electric scooters. You see, the couple did not have an FCC License, they
possessed no equipment requiring them to posses a license, yet they have
been fined and have been threatened with equipment confiscation since
their equipment is causing RFI.

Can you learn to press buttons on Handie Talkies (HT), Walkie Talkies,
Base Stations, to turn knobs, enter frequencies with the keypad, etc.
Sure. Can you learn to do it legally? Therein lies the rub.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/01/06/2/?nc=1

Modern people think that simple operation of equipment is all that is
required for them to be a professional. But to be a good HAM, you need to
understand much more (I'm not saying that I am a good HAM).

I also have an interest in telescopes. Years ago, anyone with any pride
labored to grind and figure the mirror for their telescopes, assembling
the entire unit, understanding something about optics in the process.
They went outside, learned the sky, found the objects of their desire,
and observed them. Today, you open the box, remove the wrapper, put in
the batteries, enter the coordinates from a chart, and viola!, the scope
slews to the desired star. In return they know little of the optics and
even less of the sky. Yet that call themselves amateur astronomers. I
realize that the cost is low enough for most people to buy decent
telescopes today, something that wasn't the case years ago, therefore
they built them, but they still learned about them in the process.

You see, we don't have the time to do the work building them, nor
learning the sky, we have such busy lives. But subtract the amount of
time that we spend perusing porn on the internet and watching endless
hours of televised movies, reality shows, and sports, and I think that
you would see that we do indeed have the time, but we waste it on
superficial things, things that in the long run produce no edification.

Aye, you can learn the fundamentals, but can you do it legally,
effectively, can you diagnose problems when they occur, or will you
simply throw out the item and buy another. Will you simply add a bigger
AMP (like the CB linear AMPs), or will you cunningly design your antenna
system so that you get the performance that you want with less power and
therefore less liklihood that you would produce interference.

Soliloquy.



I don't know for sure,but learning the basic fundementals of useing a
computer (or even my stupid webtv box) couldn't be much harder than
learing to be a Ham Radio Operator.
cuhulin